Survival
by dawn341
Summary: Highlander Alternate Universe - 5th in a series of 6 stories. Richie is immortal and Tessa is not dead Richie's behavior is confusing the Watchers, so Joe goes to Duncan and Tessa for some answers.


Survival by Dawn Cunningham

I wrote this story a long time ago. Since the Highlander fanfic archive has disappeared, I'm starting to post my stories on other sites. Disclaimers:

Duncan, Tessa, Richie, and Joe Dawson belong to Rysher. I'm just borrowing them and not getting paid for it.

Do not post or publish this story anywhere else, without my express permission. Feel free to share it with others as long as the disclaimers remain intact.

Warnings:

This story is an alternate universe. This follows the first fours in my alternate universe. There is another but it takes place much later in the universe. They include:

'A New Future'

'A Time To Heal'

'To Trust Again'

'Gaining Independence'

The basic premise of this alternate universe is that Richie disappeared from Seacouver before Duncan could find him in the very first episode. Because of that, Tessa didn't die. Three years later, Richie shows up at the antique store, a new Immortal. Duncan and Tessa take him in while Duncan trains Richie.

Eventually, Duncan buys the dojo and hires Richie to run it, letting him live in the apartment above it. Richie has found out about Watchers, and has become friends with Joe Dawson.

* HL * HL * HL * HL

Survival by Dawn Cunningham

Duncan MacLeod whistled softly as he arranged new merchandise on a shelf in the antique store. The antique business had been brisk lately, but on the Immortal front, things had been slow. He hadn't had a challenge in months. His student, Richie Ryan, was settling into his new job running the dojo, and his sword skills were improving by leaps and bounds.

Valentine's day was just a few days away, and he'd planned a romantic getaway for himself and Tessa. He had no doubts that she would show her appreciation of his gift in a very appropriate way. Just the thought brought a grin to his face, which of course ending his whistling.

The bells over the door gave a cheery ring indicating a new customer, and Duncan turned to greet the newcomer. The last person he expected to see was Joe Dawson standing in the antique store. It was the first time that the Watcher had ever come here.

Duncan couldn't exactly call the Watcher a friend, but he wasn't exactly an enemy, either. If it hadn't been for Dawson, the Scot would still be locked away in a prison cell thanks to Simon Killian. Instead, the Watcher had provided information and assistance to Richie, and they'd rescued him.

Since then, Duncan had gone to Joe's bar for an occasional lunch, and he'd even taken Tessa there several times to listen to Joe play. It was hardly what you'd call friendship. He couldn't believe Dawson would actually come to his home.

The Highlander stalked across the shop, struggling to keep his anger under control. He was willing to allow some leeway for Watchers, but having them come into his home was something else. Before he got to the other man, he heard Tessa's voice.

"Joe! How nice to see you," she greeted the Watcher as she hurried out of the office. "Are you looking for something special, or just browsing?"

Her comment made Duncan realize that there could be a very simple reason for Dawson to be here. He could be looking for a gift or maybe even something for himself.

A look of consternation crossed Dawson's face. He didn't say anything as his gaze shifted back and forth between Duncan and Tessa. Finally, he sighed. "We need to talk. Someplace private." He glanced at Tessa again.

Dread flooded through Duncan. What if Dawson was here to tell him that one of his old friends had lost his head? From what he knew of the Watcher, he would feel honor bound to tell the Scot in person.

"We'll go back to the apartment," Duncan said. "Tessa, will you keep an eye on the shop until I come back?"

"I'm coming with you," she announced in a tone that made it quite clear that no amount of argument would change her mind. She quickly locked the front door, and placed the closed sign in the window.

Duncan led the way back to the apartment, opting to go to the dining room instead of the living room. It seemed less personal that way. They all sat down, and Dawson pulled a notepad out of his pocket. He flipped it open, and stared down at it, as if he didn't know where to begin.

"Who?" Duncan finally asked, his hand reaching over to grab Tessa's. It had to be someone very close to him, otherwise Dawson would just tell him.

"It's Ryan," Joe said, frowning down at his notepad.

Duncan wasn't quite sure how he managed to keep from screaming out in rage. How could Richie be dead? He'd just seem him yesterday. While he knew that the young man didn't have much of a chance in The Game, he had hoped he'd have a few years. It seemed almost unthinkable that he'd lose in his very first challenge.

His anguished eyes met Tessa's, and he saw the tears forming in her eyes. She'd understood Dawson's words immediately, too. Her nails were digging into his hand as she clutched it tightly.

"How?" he managed to choke out. He'd find out all the details and then he'd go headhunting. Whoever had taken Richie's Quickening wouldn't have it for long.

Joe looked up, a frown still on his face. Suddenly, color flooded through his face as he realized what had happened. "No! Ryan hasn't lost his head! He's just... He's..."

"He's what?" Duncan demanded, even as relief washed through him.

"He's acting... strangely. Have you noticed anything unusual in his behavior lately?"

Duncan thought back over the past few weeks, trying to remember anything different. He drew a blank, and glanced over at Tessa who shook her head. "Nothing that I can remember. We get together every day to train, and we have him over for dinner at least one night a week. Nothing has changed that I can see."

"His Watcher told me that Richie's behavior has been growing more... strange ever since Christmas." Joe glanced down at his notebook. "On January 4th, Richie closed up the dojo on time, then went up on the roof. He stayed up there for quite a while, then without warning he jumped off the building."

"He did what?" Tessa almost shrieked. "Was he trying to kill himself?"

"He jumped off the roof into a dumpster in the alley. When he came back to life, he did it again. And again. And again. He finally gave up and went back inside."

"That's not all there is to it, is it?" Duncan asked, trying to figure out why Richie would have done something like that.

"No. Four nights later, he drove out to Sunset Cliffs Park, and jumped off one of the cliffs into the river below. He did that one three nights in a row."

Duncan couldn't believe what he was hearing. "Then what did he do?"

"Then on January 12th, he bought an old wreck of a car, and took it out to a road that is seldom used. He then drove up and down the road at different speeds. Every so often he'd open the door and jump out of the car. The car would usually end up being stopped by a tree, then Ryan would do it all over again. Eventually, the car wouldn't start, and he called for a tow truck to tow the car back to a garage."

Joe flipped to the next page. "The next one isn't quite so strange. He got the junk heap running again, took it to a test track and practiced doing 180 degree turns in it. That was on the 16th. Then on the 17th he drove it off a pier into the water. He didn't repeat that one."

"Why would he be doing this?" Tessa asked, standing up and starting to pace around the table.

"That's what we're trying to figure out," Dawson replied. "I'd hoped that maybe MacLeod would have some answers."

"Is that all that he's done?" Duncan asked, not sure if he wanted to hear any more.

"No. He's also practiced jumping from a motorcycle into a moving car - he had a friend helping him - told him that he was practicing to get into the stunt business."

Tessa stopped her pacing, a hopeful look on her face. "Maybe that's what all these things are - he wants to be a stuntman. After all, he can't die or get hurt."

Duncan shook his head. "That doesn't make any sense. Stuntmen may jump off buildings and cliffs, but they have special airbags to land on. When they jump from cars, they usually have sandpits to cushion their fall."

"Well, the next one falls under the stuntman category, too," Joe pointed out, looking down at his notebook. "He got on a freight train at the freight yard, climbed up on the roof, and spread himself out flat on the roof. It was hard for his Watcher to keep up with him on that little adventure, but he did manage to spot Richie moving on the roof, jumping from car to car, then finally climbing down a ladder between two cars. He lost track of him at that point, but Ryan eventually showed up back at the dojo."

"Maybe you're right," Duncan had to admit. "Maybe he thinks that he has to be able to do these kind of things if he wants to be a stuntman."

Dawson flipped over another page. "Well, two nights ago, he broke into the Seacouver zoo - do you have any idea what he's putting his Watcher through? Anyway, his Watcher managed to follow him to the alligator pit. He swears that Ryan was about to climb over the fence, but a security guard spotted him. They both managed to get away without being caught."

"An alligator pit?" Duncan shook his head. "I just don't want to believe any of this. Could his Watcher be lying about all of this?"

"I don't think so. I trust him. He's a good man - that's why I assigned him to Ryan. He's just as disturbed as I am by this behavior. He even spent a lot of time researching aberrant behavior in the Watcher files hoping to find some kind of reason for it."

Duncan looked over at Tessa who'd finally sat back down in her chair. "We'll go have a talk with him. Maybe we can find out why he's doing this."

Joe stood up. "I hope you can. He won't have a long future as an Immortal if he's..."

"Insane," Tessa finished for him.

"Well, that wasn't quite the word I was going to use, but, yes."

Dawson turned and headed for the door. Duncan went along to let him out, then came back to the apartment. Tessa already had her coat on, and was holding the Scot's.

"Let's go see Richie."

"Maybe I should go see him alone. He might open up to me if we were alone - especially if this is somehow tied to his immortality."

"And maybe he'd be more likely to talk to me. He often does, you know," Tessa stated firmly.

That was the first Duncan had heard about that. "About what?"

Tessa shrugged. "Life. Love. Immortality."

Duncan struggled to hide the hurt that statement had caused. He'd always figured Richie would come to him with any questions about immortality. He thought they had a good relationship, but if he was turning to Tessa with problems, then maybe it wasn't so good, after all.

Tessa kissed his cheek. "Don't worry about it. I think it's because I'm not 400 years old. He probably thinks you don't remember what it was like to be as young as he is, or as new an Immortal as he is. And I think he doesn't want you to think less of him when he has questions."

"I wouldn't do that!" Duncan protested.

"Of course not. And eventually Richie will realize that. Just give him some time."

The Scot nodded, recognizing the wisdom in her words. He was glad Richie felt comfortable enough to discuss things with Tessa - their relationship had not started out under the best of circumstances. He kissed her cheek, then took his coat from her.

* HL * HL * HL

The dojo only had a few customers working out. Richie was in the office, staring at the computer. He looked up when he felt the touch of another Immortal, then smiled when he saw them.

"Are we making a profit?" Duncan asked in a teasing tone. He knew there was little chance of that.

"You've got to be kidding. If I were you, I'd find a better manager."

Was this why Richie was doing all those wild things? Did he think he was a failure? "Well, I think I'll keep the one I've got. He's pretty good at his job. Besides, it takes a while to get a new business up and running well. I'm not unhappy with the results you've shown so far."

Duncan and Tessa moved further into the office, and the Scot shut the door leading to the dojo. He'd prefer to do this in a more private location, but the dojo wasn't scheduled to close until 8:00 that night. He couldn't wait that long.

"Oh, boy, what have I done now?" Richie asked, shooting glances back and forth between his two guests.

Duncan forced himself to sit down when he would have preferred to pace, but he didn't want to freak Richie out. "We had a guest today. He had some interesting information about you."

Richie's face took on a guarded look. "That could be a lot of people. You know my past isn't exactly squeaky clean."

"This was more current than that. Joe Dawson said you've been doing some... interesting things lately."

"Oh, maaaaan," Richie moaned, leaning back in his chair. "I thought they weren't supposed to interfere!"

"He was worried about you," Tessa said. "Why are you doing these things, Richie? Why are you jumping off buildings and cliffs and trains?"

"I didn't jump off the train!" Richie protested. "I climbed down the ladder."

"And what were you going to do with the alligators in the zoo."

Dark color flooded up through Richie's cheeks. "I wanted to see if I could get free if one attacked me."

Duncan shook his head, not quite trusting his ears. "You wanted to see if you could get free if an alligator attacked you?"

"Yeah."

"Why?" Duncan almost shouted out the question. Tessa just had a shocked look on her face.

"It's all her fault," Richie said, pointing a finger at Tessa.

"My fault?" Tessa shrieked, then lowered her voice. "How can it be *my* fault? I never told you to jump off buildings or wrestle alligators!"

"You gave me that book."

"What book?"

"It's upstairs."

"Go get it," Duncan ordered, wanting to find out what book was making Richie do all these things. He couldn't remember Tessa ever giving the young man a book that would suggest he do those kind of things.

Richie left the room, and they heard the elevator start up.

"I didn't give him any book that told him to jump off roofs!" Tessa protested. "Of course not. I'm sure he's just confused."

When Richie returned, he handed over a small yellow book to Duncan. The Scot flipped it over and read the title. 'The WORST-CASE SCENARIO Survival Handbook' He showed it to Tessa, who gasped.

"I did buy that book. It was supposed to be humorous."

Duncan opened it to the table of contents and started reading out the chapters. "How to escape from quicksand."

"Couldn't figure out how to do that one," Richie commented.

"How to break down a door."

"Works pretty good."

"How to break into a car."

"Knew how to do that already."

"How to hotwire a car."

"Ditto."

"How to perform a fast 180-degree turn with your car."

"That works pretty good too."

Duncan skipped down some of the entries.

"How to jump from a bridge or a cliff into a river."

"Doesn't work."

"How to jump from a building into a dumpster."

"Didn't work either - and it hurt!"

"How to maneuver on top of a moving train and get inside."

"That one worked."

Duncan gave up when he saw the section on how to perform a tracheotomy. He hoped Richie hadn't planned on trying that one! Or delivering a baby in a taxi cab.

"I still don't understand why you had to go test out these ideas. I don't think that was the intent of the book."

"I figured, why not? After all, it's not like I could die permanently. I wanted to see if their ideas really worked. Besides, I thought some of them might come in handy sometime. Boy, I sure hope no one takes these instructions seriously. They could get hurt."

Duncan rubbed his temples with his fingers, trying to stop the throbbing pain that had just kicked in. "No one else but you would have taken this seriously, Rich. I can't believe you had to try these. Do you realize what could have happened? Do you know you could have been beheaded by the edge of the dumpster if you'd missed? Or if you'd fallen under the wheels of the train? How do you think Tessa and I would have felt if Joe had had to deliver that kind of information?"

"Not to mention the fact that Joe would probably have been upset by it, as well," Tessa added.

Richie blushed again. "I guess I didn't think about that. I'm sorry. I didn't mean to worry you."

Tessa went over to him and hugged him tightly. "I'm glad it was something so simple. Just stop trying to do these... these..."

"Stupid stunts," Duncan finished for her.

"But the second book has even better things - like how to jump from building to building. That could come in handy sometime. I didn't buy it yet, but I've been planning on doing it."

"Well, you can stop planning it!" Tessa stated firmly. "The next time I buy you a book, I'm going to make sure it doesn't give you any wild ideas!"

She grabbed the book and threw it the trash can. "And that's the end of that!"

The end.

This is from a real book called 'The WORST-CASE SCENARIO Survival Handbook'. I'm not sure what the title of the second one was. It's by Joshua Piven and David Borgenicht and is filled with all kinds of interesting scenarios. So, if you want to know how to survive when you jump from a building into a dumpster, be sure to get it and find out how.

When a friend showed me the book, I immediately thought of Richie!


End file.
